Japanese Culture (I'm an Expert)
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About
Japanese Culture (I'm an Expert) refers to a copypasta which spread primarily on NeoGAF making fun of a poster who claimed to be an expert on Japanese culture criticizing Square Enix for releasing Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360. The copypasta has been parodied with numerous different subjects other than "Japanese Culture."
Origin
On July 14th, 2008 NeoGAF user Muppet345[1] posted a comment criticizing Square Enix for releasing Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360, using his knowledge of Japanese culture to strengthen his argument. His comment reads:
Square just shot themselves in the foot.
I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.
What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase FFXIII for either system, nor will they purchase any of Square's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Square has alienated an entire market with this move.
Square, publicly apologize and cancel FFXIII for 360 or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Spread
The same day, a YouTube video uploaded by an account titled "ff13petition" uploaded a reading of the copypasta, gaining over 756,000 views (shown below). The person in the video was identified as Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen from Something Awful. [2]
The copypasta was discussed by NeoGAF users as a potential meme of the year for 2008.[3] It continued seeing use in NeoGAF threads over the following decade, appearing in threads titled, "Why do people pretend to be Japanese on the internet?"[4], "Oh look, there's a fan petition to drop ScarJo from the Ghost in the Shell film,"[5] and "Japanese man caught lying about being a Guilty Gear champion, is publicly shamed."[6] It appeared in a ResetERA[7] thread on September 18th, 2013. It appeared again on July 13th, 2018 on Resetera[8] in a 10-year anniversary celebration post. On April 9th, 2019, Polygon[9] referenced it as a similar copypasta to the more recent You Cheated Not Only the Game, But Yourself copypasta.
Search Interest
Unavailable
External References
[1] NeoGAF – Final Fantasy XIII confirmed for Xbox 360
[2] NeoGAF – The Japanese Culture (I'm an expert) meme
[3] NeoGAF – Meme of the Year
[4] NeoGAF – Why do people pretend to be Japanese on the internet?
[5] NeoGAF – Oh look, there's a fan petition to drop ScarJo from the Ghost in the Shell film
[6] NeoGAF – Japanese man caught lying about being a Guilty Gear champion, is publicly shamed
[7] ResetERA – Square just shot themselves in the foot.
[8] ResetERA – 10 years ago today, Square shot themselves in the foot
[9] Polygon – The Sekiro difficulty debate has spawned a great meme
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